After having been approved on 15 June 2018, the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) – together with their related ordinances – will enter into force as at 1 January 2020 with a transitional period of 2 years.
Keeping the overview!
The Financial Services Act (FinSA in English, FIDLEG in German, LSFin in French and LSerFI in Italian).
In a nutshell, FinSA provides rules of conduct for financial services providers, namely:
1. Client Categorisation (private clients, professional clients, institutional clients)
2. Suitability and Appropriateness of services and advice provided to Clients
3. Transparency and due care in clients’ transactions
4. Disclosure obligations
5. Record keeping
6. Institutional and professional clients
7. Organisational obligations
The Financial Institutions Act (FinIA in English, FINIG in German, LEFin in French and LlsFi in Italian)
The Financial Institutions Act lays down the requirements for financial institutions' activities (portfolio managers, trustees, managers of collective assets, fund management companies and securities firms).
A portfolio manager is defined per FinIA as someone that, based on a mandate agreement, may dispose of a client’s asset by way of the following activities: (i) purchase or sale of financial instruments, (ii) acceptance and transmission of client orders relating to financial instruments, (iii) management of financial instruments (asset management), or (iv) advice relating to financial instruments (investment advice).
Before, they were not subject to licensing requirements and they only had to register with a self-regulatory organization for purposes of compliance with anti-money laundering legislation.